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En Masse Entertainment delivers Great Games & Great Service on CenturyLink
Technology Category
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Computing
Applicable Industries
- Software
Applicable Functions
- Business Operation
Services
- Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services
The Challenge
En Masse Entertainment, an online gaming company, was facing the challenge of delivering an uninterrupted online gaming experience that keeps players in the game and the excitement streaming. The company was looking at spending more than $1 million in capital expense just to upgrade its internal infrastructure to the latest technology. With the business expanding into other games and a mobile gaming initiative coming to fruition, a new IT strategy was necessary to avoid soaring costs and the erosion of the user experience so vital in the gaming world. The company was expanding into Brazil, Australia and elsewhere. So any solution had to have a global footprint, with multiple data centers to avoid latency issues that can kill game performance.
About The Customer
En Masse Entertainment was founded in 2009 with the goal of building loyal audiences for the finest online games in the world and a motto of “Great Games — Great Service.” En Masse successfully launched its inaugural title, TERA — a revolutionary action-combat MMO — in 2012, followed closely by the online shooter ZMR (Zombies Monsters Robots). But today, “Great Games — Great Service” isn’t limited by platform; En Masse has expanded into mobile games with multiple titles. The company's core DNA and offerings are online, which brings new challenges and costs. The company was looking at spending more than $1 million in capital expense just to upgrade its internal infrastructure to the latest technology.
The Solution
En Masse has shifted many of its games into CenturyLink Cloud compute, a public cloud offering processing capability that can expand its virtual and physical resources on demand. CenturyLink was ready for En Masse’s needs, having developed a gaming reference architecture with customers like En Masse in mind. The architecture is designed to maximize centralized management and global replication in other cloud data centers so that latency is not an issue for users in any corner of the world. These games can support anywhere from a few dozen to hundreds of users at any one time. Spikes in demand are handled through automated provisioning without burdensome linkages that raise costs. When more CPU or memory is needed it’s configured on the fly. A gigabit connection from CenturyLink’s Chicago data center easily handles bandwidth needs. That available bandwidth is crucial to reduce or avoid latency issues.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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